Three faint comets.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi,
Thought I'd give some faint comets a go last night 12-06-2012.
The magnitudes listed are from guide 8.
1. Comet Garrard C/2009 P1. in Cnc. mag 10.9
2. Comet Loneos C/2006 S3. in Oph. mag 12.2
3. Comet McNaught C/2009 F4. in Dor. mag 14.3.
Comet Garrard has been a consistent performer, imaged it back in September 2011 and I wanted to image it one more time. The galaxy in the field is UGC 4740 mag 14.8.
Comet Loneos, shows a well defined nucleus and sporting a small tail.
Comet McNaught was a real surprise at mag 14.3, I was happy to get anything, this even shows a small tail.
All images are at ISO 1600 5 x 120 sec exposures, no auto guiding.
Telescope 8" f/4 astrograph on a HEQ Pro 5 mount.
Unmodded Canon 1100D at ISO 1600
5 x120 sec subs ISO 1600
Stacked in DSS and post process in Phototshop.
Cheers,

Justin.

[JB80]

Nice captures. :)
I always like comet shots.

Garrard was the first comet I have seen through a telescope, nice to know it's still kicking around.

[Lester]

Good on ya Justin. Always good to see some comets with short tails. Thanks.

[jjjnettie]

:) Cool.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Thanks Jarrard, Lester and jj.



Something you always remeber, the first view of a comet. Mine was Halley's comet.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Matt Wastell]

Thanks for these pics - impressive!

[cometcatcher]

Great shots. I should be watching out for these also.

[Liz]

Well done Justin!!! Keep meaning to catch Comet Garradd before it fades away, it has been a great comet, and have seen it many times now. :)

[CometGuy]

Hi Justin,

Well done!

When are you going to start searching for comet's with this setup :) ?

Terry

[Astroman]

Nice work Justin, some good captures there.

[bkm2304]

Very nice captures, Justin. The unmodded Canon sure brings out the "green ghost" glow in comets. Great for hunting - makes 'em stand out.:thumbsup:

Cheerio,

Richard

[Clayton]

Well caught Justin :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Liz]

I believe Justin already has one comet named for him.:) :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Nice captures.

Greg.

[astronobob]

Great stuff Justin, Huntin down them three ! The resolution & colours are great ! good show ! !

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi all,

Thanks for the comments







Hi Terry,
I'm still sorting out the best method of hunting with my setup, but plan to start seriously in November.
I won't have the level of sophistication of your setup, so my thinking is with the 1.5 degree by 1.0 degree field I have is to overlap so it comes back to 1.0 by .75. In 4 hours I hope to cover 24 by 1.5 degrees, using 5 x 2 minute exposures for each field at ISO 1600. Weather permitting repeat this over three nights, moving down in declination.
The next problem is do I try and blink frames, or stack them and look for the tell tale streak in the image.
Any idea's this?
I also plan to do some visual sweeping, as I understand a few brighter comets ahve gone begging in recent years.
It's pretty easy to cover 120 degrees by 20 in 2 hours, Iv'e kept the old comet hunter up to scratch figuring to give it another go.



Yep, 1997 O1, and also 1999 A1, not many remember A1 as it was rather faint and disintegrated.

Cheers,

Justin.